Woman charged in warrant in slaying of Brother Rice teacher

An Ohio woman with a history of prostitution stabbed to death a longtime Brother Rice High School teacher in a dispute over money, Orland Park police said Saturday.

Alisha M. Walker, 20, has been named in a no-bond, first-degree murder arrest warrant in the slaying of Alan Filan, 61, in his Orland Park home last weekend, police said. Walker, of Akron, Ohio, was arrested early Friday in Fort Wayne, Ind., and is being held at the Allen County Jail there, awaiting extradition, police said in a news release Saturday.

Police had said the suspect was an acquaintance of the victim and was arrested in the early morning hours Friday, according to a police news release.

Walker confessed to police that she was at Filan's home Jan. 18 after Filan contacted her via the website Backpage, and they had met on at least two other occasions. Walker, who had prior arrests for drugs, prostitution and battery, told police that they had a dispute over money that led to a struggle and Walker stabbing Filan multiple times, police said in the release.

Filan was found dead on the kitchen floor of his Orland Park home Tuesday when police went to his house after Filan didn't report for work that day. The Cook County medical examiner's office said Wednesday the cause of Filan's death was multiple stab and incise wounds.

Filan taught at Chicago's Brother Rice High School for nearly 40 years and coached soccer at Tinley Park's Victor Andrew High School from 1988 to 2010, the schools confirmed.

Brian Collie, 44, a 1987 Brother Rice graduate, said that the allegations that came out in court Saturday regarding Filan and Walker were "definitely surprising."

"He always taught us to be good, upstanding young Christian men," Collie said. "Again, I don't know the situation, but it just seems out of character for him to be in that situation.

"To us, he was upstanding in every way. It's just odd for him to be in a situation like this. I hope he rests in peace. I'm sorry and saddened that all the young men weren't able to be guided by him."

Filan, a 1974 graduate of Calumet College of St. Joseph's in Whiting, Ind., is part of a prominent Cook County family. His brother, Bill, is a Chicago lobbyist, and his sister, Denise, is a Cook County judge.